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Notes from 2:30 session
Here is where I am taking notes from our current discussion: --Rebecca M. 09:36, 10 Dec 2005 (EST) 'SESSION THREE 2:30pm-4:00 What makes a successful blogosphere?' Why is it that some countries have developed vibrant local blogospheres (Iran, Jordan, Cambodia etc) while others haven’t? What conditions are required and what outreach can be done by the Global Voices community to help enable and encourage blogging in communities that could greatly benefit from this new citizens’ medium? Ory from Kenya: - support new bloggers by linking to them, commenting on new blogs. this is important to helping to build a blogosphere. - create a home like a weblog ring, create a space for the community to be gathered - set up guides and instructions on how to blog - virtual communication amongst the bloggers (IM, chat, email, etc) helps to create community and forge relationships) Roba from Jordan: - Jordanplanet. forms a community, and they have monthly meetings. - outreach and training to teach young people how to blog in schools, etc. holding seminars. - how blogs react to a "breaking story" like the bombing: spontaneous and honest, heartfelt reactions. creation of "virtual newsroom" monitoring the media across several countries. screenshots of tv coverage, translating captions etc. shows how a blogosphere can react to a sudden tragic event - diaspora linkage: 50% jordanian bloggers don't live in jordan ThaRum from Cambodia: - local media writing about bloggers helped publicize and caused a lot of people to start blogs. - blogger meetings. (mainly foreigners) - most blogging in english. some starting to blog in Khmer language. but there's problem with input system and fonts. Neha from India: - most people on blogspot.com - tsunami led a lot of people into blogging. - indian blogosphere is so big that it doesnt look outwards as much - community sites like desipundit.com - passion around certain issues inspires people to start blogging. - competition with the pakistani blogosphere - crisis & controversy drives upsurge in blogging - popularity contests Enda from Indonesia: sees 2 steps: 1. get more people to blog. need to teach them and coach people. give more information about how-to 2. bloggers should have more awareness about their surroundings, not just personal lives different generations of bloggers: personal, tech, and now media. growing into a media watchdog. Iriya from Venezuela: - starting out in tech, then moving onward to broader subjects. now more political, social issues, more debate, etc. more focused on quality of conversation, etc. - frustration that nobody listens. expectations are really high that people will get quoted widely and that they will have a big impact. Hoder on building a blogosphere: - credibility is a very important issue. looked for prominent journalists to blog (have more influence than writers and have greater potential to be bloggers). getting "big name bloggers" to blog - somebody needs to maintain a list of every blogger. this is especially important for new-comers. it encourages them. - very much like gardening. you plant a seed and then you have to take care of it. - in some communities, if there is no value placed on self-expression and the individual, it may still not work. so there are some cultures more conducive to blogging. Sokari on the problems: - in Nigeria, no community. just group of individuals. there's need for a community but culutrally it's difficult. politically different, much more diverse ethnically, etc. which makes it harder to form community. - need to build upon kenyan example but may be difficult given cultural difference 'CHALLENGES:' - getting beyond people's egos and bringing them into community. what are the incentives? - what does a successful blogosphere mean?? what problem is it solving? - for GV: should we be documenting problems or solving them? - should we really be getting people to focus more on politics and less on personal matters? (from IRC) - more people writing than reading? how to divert naitonal attention to blogs that are consistent and relevant and useful (georgia cites comments) - blogospheres within blogospheres. - how to reach out to different age groups? - how do you take blog-evangelizing off-line? - what do we do when we come across a "latent blogosphere"? 'BRAINSTORM ABOUT POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS & SUGGESTIONS:' - target which specific groups of people would most benefit from blogs. (like women, ory suggests, might find blogs more useful than men). sometimes need to focus on what blogging can do for certain individuals who would benefit from having their own conversation space. - getting public figures to blog. generates media attention (enda) - encourage corporations to blog. more corporate blogging (enda) - good blog is passionate and authoritative. also can use blogging to get things into google. (scoble) - email your community's interesting links to other bloggers in other countries and ask them to link to them (scoble) - create language bridges. people can help translate and also act as a conduit to inform bloggers in other countries about what their community is saying. (scoble) - ask robert for money ;-) just email him!! - translating conversations conducted by blogospheres within blogospheres. sometimes stories about people's personal experiences can be very enlightening to outsiders to learn how people are living. (example Iran) those of us who speak second language we need to translate human experiences. voices not just political, as people don't always express themselves in political vocabulary. - * feature series of regular posts on GV talking about tools and how-to's?? - lots of community blogospheres have customized tools and created new things. maybe we need to write up a series of how-to's and collection of all the useful links. - rotate regional editors? might protect against insularity? - seek out groups you think ought to be blogging who aren't, and encourage them to blog, teach them how to blog. - jonl suggests on IRC: try to revive Bloggercorps - bloggers in various countries need to not only create community w/ meetups, etc., but also seek to expand community. go outside capital city. run workshops w/ young people. etc. (MMM - believes it IS possible if we have the will to do it) - finding people where they are (with training and outreach) - recap: meetups, care & feeding of new communities, central lists, instruction sets which can be translated. QUESTION: can GV start becoming center and distributor for these educational materials and methods. 'SESSION 4 NOTES:' Thoughts from Chris Ahearn of Reuters - how does MSM embrace citizens media. how to help ensure that "we" are hearing appropriate contrast, conversation and pushback? reuters hopes to help people understand good journalistic practices potential for synergy - the ability for bloggers to influence global media via partnership w/ reuters? LANGUAGE ISSUE: - blogamundo model: http://blogamundo.com - Chinese Voices? Spanish Voices? - creating forums for cross-language dialogue like Russian-english cross-blogging effort. - sharon hom points out that the end result of translation requires a great deal of process discussion about the meaning of things. - wiki environment for translation would probably work well BLOGLOGUE: - create reservoir of information from non-blogger participants: academics, writers, etc. OTHER SUGGESTIONS: - esperanto - process: - need more contextualization - concerns about sources of funding